1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inkjet recording apparatus for forming or recording an image on a recording medium.
2. Description of Related Art
An inkjet printer as a type of the inkjet recording apparatus is disclosed in JP-A-2006-131353. The inkjet printer includes an inkjet head, a feeder belt, and a medium holder. The inkjet head has an ink ejection surface in which openings of a plurality of nozzles are arranged, and the medium holder is capable of accommodating a stack of recording media, which may be cut sheets of paper. Recording media stacked on the medium holder are one by one picked up from the medium holder and fed by the feeder belt to a position to be opposed to the ink ejection surface of the inkjet head. When each recording medium reaches this position, droplets of ink are ejected from the nozzle openings to form an image on the recording medium.
It is often the case that foreign matter, such as paper dust, is present on a recording medium. Further, a recording medium is subject to an external force or vibrations while fed inside the printer. Hence, it may occur that during a recording medium is fed to the position to be opposed to the ink ejection surface after picked up from the medium holder, foreign matter on a surface of the recording medium departs from the surface and scatters around. Some of the foreign matter thus scattering may waft around the feeder belt and land on the ink ejection surface of the inkjet head, leading to closure of the nozzle openings or entrance of the foreign matter into the nozzles, which causes defect or failure in ejection of ink droplets. A remover can be disposed near the inkjet head in order to remove the foreign matter on the surface of the recording medium. However, it is impossible to perfectly remove the foreign matter from the surface of the recording medium with the remover, and a portion of the foreign matter inevitably scatters around. It is difficult to reliably inhibit the wafting foreign matter from landing on the ink ejection surface.